commercial coverage

Commercial Automobile

Insurance for your business needs
Every commercial vehicle probably has some exposure to automobile liability or physical damage as a normal part of its operations. Business Auto Coverage provides valuable protection for your commercially owned vehicles, as well as for “hired/non-owned” including rentals, loaners or leased vehicles. This comprehensive auto liability and physical damage coverage for commercial risks also has three counterparts the garage policy, the truckers policy and the motor carrier policy.

General Liability

Insurance to protect you against lawsuits
Unfortunately, for every business owner, the chances of getting sued have dramatically increased. General liability insurance can prevent a legal suit from turning into a financial disaster. Commercial General Liability Coverage Forms are extremely broad in nature. Each insures the bodily injury liability, property damage liability, and completed operations exposure of a variety of commercial businesses, enterprises and ventures. The broad nature of these forms eliminates having to select and group individual or specific hazards, with the resulting potential gaps in coverage.

Workers’ Compensation

Insurance for employee injuries and illnesses
Workers’ compensation provides the mandatory benefits prescribed and required by the various state laws for accidental work-related injuries that occur in the course of employment, subject to its terms and conditions. It must be emphasized that the injury must arise from and be related to the injured worker’s job duties. Coverage also applies to the related costs for disease or death that occur as a result of the accident. The concept behind workers’ compensation is that employees relinquish their right to sue employers if they suffer a job-related injury or illness.

Inland Marine Insurance

Inland marine insurance began as an extension of ocean marine insurance. Many customers needed coverage for property that moved on land between the dock and the final inland destination. The item was not yet a traditional property exposure because it was not at a specific or described location. Inland marine insurance coverage was developed to meet the need for insurance coverage on property in transit on or over land and not at fixed locations.

Inland marine insurance includes various policies that are available to cover your equipment and materials in the field, as well as computer equipment. Most business personal property policies limit the amount of coverage that is available for those types of exposures. These policies are normally written on an “all risk” basis subject to routine exclusions.

Umbrella Insurance

Commercial umbrella insurance provides an extra layer of liability protection by covering costs that go beyond your other liability coverage limits. In other words, commercial umbrella insurance complements your other liability coverages by taking over when your other liability coverage limits have been reached.

Cyber Insurance

The insurance industry is evolving to help your business mitigate risk. Specifically, cyber insurance is evolving fast. Cyber insurance offers a safety net for businesses threatened by the rapid growth of insider cybercrime and external cyber threats, particularly ransomware. While cyber insurance has been a reliable safety net for years driven by accelerating insider cybercrime and exploding ransomware attacks, things are changing fast.

Before you seek cyber liability coverage or negotiate your next insurance policy renewal, it’s important to understand the dynamics of the rapidly changing market and consider how well your security controls will stand up to an insurance company’s review.

Builders’ Risk Insurance

Builders’ risk policies cover a building or structure throughout the course of construction. The coverage is on an Inland Marine policy form where the coverages are extremely broad,and subject to limited exclusions. Coverage includes theft and vandalism of materials and supplies from the moment it is delivered to the job site. Protection would include materials in-transit at temporary locations. Determining the limit of insurance can be the key in keeping a builder in business.

Builders’ risk coverage is available for use by any party having a financial interest in a building or structure being constructed or renovated. Any such party may be a named insured under builders’ risk coverage. The party can be the building owner alone, the building contractor alone or the building owner and the building contractor jointly. It includes any type of building under construction, regardless of the intended occupancy after construction is complete. The builders’ risk coverage provided must end when construction is complete or when the building or structure is put to its final or intended use.

special coverage

Surety Bonds

While surety bonds are relatively simple, a number of qualifying steps must be taken before an underwriter accepts a risk. The surety business is susceptible to unusually large losses and knowledgeable underwriters do not commit their insurance company to a submission without examining it thoroughly.

The human element is the factor that frequently causes a loss or default. To determine whether the applicant is qualified for the projected undertaking or obligation, three factors must be carefully examined:

• Character: Does the applicant’s previous performance record suggest that it is of good character and will faithfully respond to the imposed obligation or trust?
• Capacity: Does the applicant have the skill, experience and knowledge essential to performing its obligations?
• Capital: Does the applicant’s financial condition warrant approval as a suitable and desirable risk?

Both the bid and final bonds are done out of our office. Our clients expect nothing less.

Management Liability

Directors and Officers (D&O) Liability Insurance
Directors and Officers liability protects the directors and officers of both public and private companies, as well as not-for-profit organizations, against loss (damages and defense costs) arising out of their status or conduct as directors or officers. Common claims allege breach of duty, security law violations, and unfair competition.

Fidelity (Crime) Insurance
Fidelity insurance, or Crime insurance, protects organizations from loss of money, securities, or other property resulting from theft. Common claims arise from employee dishonesty, forgery, robbery, wire transfer fraud, or other criminal acts.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance
Employment Practices Liability Insurance is a form of liability insurance that protects against wrongful employment practices committed by the business entity, its employees, executive officers, directors, stockholders, members, and managers of a limited liability company. Even if the claim is frivolous, you may still be faced with extensive legal costs. Protect your business with an Employment Practices Liability policy.

The types of claims alleged under such policies include: wrongful termination, wrongful refusal to employ qualified applicants, wrongful failure to promote qualified employees, defamation of character, violation of an employee’s right to privacy, harassment, coercion, unfair discrimination, or sexual harassment.

Fiduciary Liability Insurance
Fiduciary Liability Insurance protects fiduciaries, as defined by the ERISA, against loss, both damage and defense costs, arising from administration and management of employee benefit and pension plans. Common claims include ERISA violations, negligent advice, and careless plan management.

Kidnap/Ransom and Extortion Insurance
Kidnap/Ransom and Extortion Insurance can provide reimbursement for ransom monies paid in the event of a covered kidnapping or extortion event. Companies who ask employees to travel overseas for business purposes often purchase this insurance at minimal cost to protect employees and their guests during such travel and business related activities at home or abroad.

Contractor Pollution Liability

Almost every contractor’s standard general liability policy contains pollution liability exclusions. Just because you may not be engaged in environmental remediation work, you may still have pollution liability exposures which may be excluded by the standard commercial general liability policy. The standard CGL policy provides two important areas in which an insured contractor does have significant pollution liability coverage.

1. Certain incidental pollution exposures in connection with off-premises operations.
2. Certain incidental pollution exposures in connection with completed operations.

Instead of accepting restrictive endorsements, a contractor should ask their agent to explore expansion of pollution liability coverage via limited pollution liability endorsements, or even a broad form (occurrence) pollution liability policy to round out its general liability program.

benefits coverage

Group Health Insurance

Group health insurance is also known as employer-sponsored health insurance. Group insurance health plans provide coverage to a group of members, usually a company or organization’s employees. Employees usually receive insurance at a reduced cost because the insurer’s risk is spread across a large group of policyholders.

These kinds of insurance plans can only be purchased by groups, making individuals ineligible for this type of coverage.

Although all group health insurance plans are different due to variations in costs, health insurance companies, group plan types, and plan specifications, they do have similarities.

Retirement Plans

A 401(k) is an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan that offers significant tax benefits while helping you plan for the future.

With a 401(k), an employee sets a percentage of their income to be automatically taken out of each paycheck and invested in their account. Participants can choose how to allocate their funds among the investment choices offered by the plan, which usually include a variety of mutual funds.

Davis-Bacon Act or Federal Prevailing Wage
If you are an employer that works on Davis-Bacon or Federal Prevailing Wage projects, a Prevailing Wage Retirement Plan, Hour Bank, HRA, or HSA can help you and your employees.
Employers reduce your Labor burden and bid your contracts more effectively. Employees are helped to secure their future and help manage a continuation of their benefits.

Life Insurance

The Roberts Agency has a “Chartered Life Underwriter” (CLU) who oversees this area. The following services are available:

• Life insurance family planning income needs (term, whole and variable life policies),
• Buy-sell agreement structuring,
• Key man life,
• Life/long-term care hybrid policy.

Long Term Care

As a people, we are living longer and will have a need for insurance to pay the high cost of “Assisted Living” or “Convalescent Home Care.” Connecticut is one of only four states that have a partnership with “State Medicaid,” enabling you to protect your assets against future health and life expenses.

Let us help you set this up. You can lock in a low rate and protect your insurability by buying this coverage before you retire.

homebuilders program

This program features a competitively priced Builders Risk policy that offers extensive property protection for houses and materials throughout the duration of the project. It provides additional protection tailored to your operations for Specialty Trade Coverage’s, Contractors Equipment, Workers Compensation, Commercial Automobile, General Liability, and Umbrella Insurance.

commercial coverage

Commercial Automobile

Insurance for your business needs
Every commercial vehicle probably has some exposure to automobile liability or physical damage as a normal part of its operations. Business Auto Coverage provides valuable protection for your commercially owned vehicles, as well as for “hired/non-owned” including rentals, loaners or leased vehicles. This comprehensive auto liability and physical damage coverage for commercial risks also has three counterparts the garage policy, the truckers policy and the motor carrier policy.

General Liability

Insurance to protect you against lawsuits
Unfortunately, for every business owner, the chances of getting sued have dramatically increased. General liability insurance can prevent a legal suit from turning into a financial disaster. Commercial General Liability Coverage Forms are extremely broad in nature. Each insures the bodily injury liability, property damage liability, and completed operations exposure of a variety of commercial businesses, enterprises and ventures. The broad nature of these forms eliminates having to select and group individual or specific hazards, with the resulting potential gaps in coverage.

Workers’ Compensation

Insurance for employee injuries and illnesses
Workers’ compensation provides the mandatory benefits prescribed and required by the various state laws for accidental work-related injuries that occur in the course of employment, subject to its terms and conditions. It must be emphasized that the injury must arise from and be related to the injured worker’s job duties. Coverage also applies to the related costs for disease or death that occur as a result of the accident. The concept behind workers’ compensation is that employees relinquish their right to sue employers if they suffer a job-related injury or illness.

Inland Marine Insurance

Inland marine insurance began as an extension of ocean marine insurance. Many customers needed coverage for property that moved on land between the dock and the final inland destination. The item was not yet a traditional property exposure because it was not at a specific or described location. Inland marine insurance coverage was developed to meet the need for insurance coverage on property in transit on or over land and not at fixed locations.

Inland marine insurance includes various policies that are available to cover your equipment and materials in the field, as well as computer equipment. Most business personal property policies limit the amount of coverage that is available for those types of exposures. These policies are normally written on an “all risk” basis subject to routine exclusions.

Umbrella Insurance

Commercial umbrella insurance provides an extra layer of liability protection by covering costs that go beyond your other liability coverage limits. In other words, commercial umbrella insurance complements your other liability coverages by taking over when your other liability coverage limits have been reached.

Cyber Insurance

The insurance industry is evolving to help your business mitigate risk. Specifically, cyber insurance is evolving fast. Cyber insurance offers a safety net for businesses threatened by the rapid growth of insider cybercrime and external cyber threats, particularly ransomware. While cyber insurance has been a reliable safety net for years driven by accelerating insider cybercrime and exploding ransomware attacks, things are changing fast.

Before you seek cyber liability coverage or negotiate your next insurance policy renewal, it’s important to understand the dynamics of the rapidly changing market and consider how well your security controls will stand up to an insurance company’s review.

Builders’ Risk Insurance

Builders’ risk policies cover a building or structure throughout the course of construction. The coverage is on an Inland Marine policy form where the coverages are extremely broad,and subject to limited exclusions. Coverage includes theft and vandalism of materials and supplies from the moment it is delivered to the job site. Protection would include materials in-transit at temporary locations. Determining the limit of insurance can be the key in keeping a builder in business.

Builders’ risk coverage is available for use by any party having a financial interest in a building or structure being constructed or renovated. Any such party may be a named insured under builders’ risk coverage. The party can be the building owner alone, the building contractor alone or the building owner and the building contractor jointly. It includes any type of building under construction, regardless of the intended occupancy after construction is complete. The builders’ risk coverage provided must end when construction is complete or when the building or structure is put to its final or intended use.

special coverage

Surety Bonds

While surety bonds are relatively simple, a number of qualifying steps must be taken before an underwriter accepts a risk. The surety business is susceptible to unusually large losses and knowledgeable underwriters do not commit their insurance company to a submission without examining it thoroughly.

The human element is the factor that frequently causes a loss or default. To determine whether the applicant is qualified for the projected undertaking or obligation, three factors must be carefully examined:

• Character: Does the applicant’s previous performance record suggest that it is of good character and will faithfully respond to the imposed obligation or trust?
• Capacity: Does the applicant have the skill, experience and knowledge essential to performing its obligations?
• Capital: Does the applicant’s financial condition warrant approval as a suitable and desirable risk?

Both the bid and final bonds are done out of our office. Our clients expect nothing less.

Management Liability

Directors and Officers (D&O) Liability Insurance
Directors and Officers liability protects the directors and officers of both public and private companies, as well as not-for-profit organizations, against loss (damages and defense costs) arising out of their status or conduct as directors or officers. Common claims allege breach of duty, security law violations, and unfair competition.

Fidelity (Crime) Insurance
Fidelity insurance, or Crime insurance, protects organizations from loss of money, securities, or other property resulting from theft. Common claims arise from employee dishonesty, forgery, robbery, wire transfer fraud, or other criminal acts.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance
Employment Practices Liability Insurance is a form of liability insurance that protects against wrongful employment practices committed by the business entity, its employees, executive officers, directors, stockholders, members, and managers of a limited liability company. Even if the claim is frivolous, you may still be faced with extensive legal costs. Protect your business with an Employment Practices Liability policy.

The types of claims alleged under such policies include: wrongful termination, wrongful refusal to employ qualified applicants, wrongful failure to promote qualified employees, defamation of character, violation of an employee’s right to privacy, harassment, coercion, unfair discrimination, or sexual harassment.

Fiduciary Liability Insurance
Fiduciary Liability Insurance protects fiduciaries, as defined by the ERISA, against loss, both damage and defense costs, arising from administration and management of employee benefit and pension plans. Common claims include ERISA violations, negligent advice, and careless plan management.

Kidnap/Ransom and Extortion Insurance
Kidnap/Ransom and Extortion Insurance can provide reimbursement for ransom monies paid in the event of a covered kidnapping or extortion event. Companies who ask employees to travel overseas for business purposes often purchase this insurance at minimal cost to protect employees and their guests during such travel and business related activities at home or abroad.

Contractor Pollution Liability

Almost every contractor’s standard general liability policy contains pollution liability exclusions. Just because you may not be engaged in environmental remediation work, you may still have pollution liability exposures which may be excluded by the standard commercial general liability policy. The standard CGL policy provides two important areas in which an insured contractor does have significant pollution liability coverage.

1. Certain incidental pollution exposures in connection with off-premises operations.
2. Certain incidental pollution exposures in connection with completed operations.

Instead of accepting restrictive endorsements, a contractor should ask their agent to explore expansion of pollution liability coverage via limited pollution liability endorsements, or even a broad form (occurrence) pollution liability policy to round out its general liability program.

benefits coverage

Group Health Insurance

Group health insurance is also known as employer-sponsored health insurance. Group insurance health plans provide coverage to a group of members, usually a company or organization’s employees. Employees usually receive insurance at a reduced cost because the insurer’s risk is spread across a large group of policyholders.

These kinds of insurance plans can only be purchased by groups, making individuals ineligible for this type of coverage.

Although all group health insurance plans are different due to variations in costs, health insurance companies, group plan types, and plan specifications, they do have similarities.

Retirement Plans

A 401(k) is an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan that offers significant tax benefits while helping you plan for the future.

With a 401(k), an employee sets a percentage of their income to be automatically taken out of each paycheck and invested in their account. Participants can choose how to allocate their funds among the investment choices offered by the plan, which usually include a variety of mutual funds.

Davis-Bacon Act or Federal Prevailing Wage
If you are an employer that works on Davis-Bacon or Federal Prevailing Wage projects, a Prevailing Wage Retirement Plan, Hour Bank, HRA, or HSA can help you and your employees.
Employers reduce your Labor burden and bid your contracts more effectively. Employees are helped to secure their future and help manage a continuation of their benefits.

Life Insurance

The Roberts Agency has a “Chartered Life Underwriter” (CLU) who oversees this area. The following services are available:

• Life insurance family planning income needs,
• Buy-sell agreement structuring,
• Key man plans,
• Corporation stock redemption plans,
• Estate planning, and
• Mortgage insurance.

Long Term Care

As a people, we are living longer and will have a need for insurance to pay the high cost of “Assisted Living” or “Convalescent Home Care.” Connecticut is one of only four states that have a partnership with “State Medicaid,” enabling you to protect your assets against future health and life expenses.

Let us help you set this up. You can lock in a low rate and protect your insurability by buying this coverage before you retire.

homebuilders program

This program features a competitively priced Builders Risk policy that offers extensive property protection for houses and materials throughout the duration of the project. It provides additional protection tailored to your operations for Specialty Trade Coverage’s, Contractors Equipment, Workers Compensation, Commercial Automobile, General Liability, and Umbrella Insurance.